Meggings: Leggings for Men, but will your man wear them?

Jonathon Heaf – Picture by Teri Pengilley

We’ve seen leggings, that staple fashion must have in the 80’s, making a welcome comeback in recent times, and their denim cousin ‘jeggings’ almost overtake them in the style stakes, but have you ever heard of meggings? No, me neither, until I picked up the Telegraph the other day, and browsed through their fashion section. Meggings are, apparently, the male version of leggings, and what men all over the world have been quietly waiting for. Jealous for so long of us ladies, slipping on these elasticated waisted lounge pants, men now no longer want to be seen in a faded, but oh so fashionable pair of Levi’s 501s. Heaven forbid! No, meggings are where it’s all at, and apparently the more outrageous and sparkly the better.

And if you think this is a relatively new craze, think again, for journalist Jonathan Heaf, he of male magazine GQ, first donned a pair back in 2009, when presumably, they weren’t so trendy. In celebrity world, the likes of Russell Brand, Lenny Kravitz, Jethro Cave (son of Nick), Justin Hawkins (lead singer of The darkness) and even little Justin Bieber are already capitalising on their skinny legs to show off their meggings. But can the ordinary bloke get away with wearing them and would he want to? Sage advice from Hawkins included: “Go commando if you can brave it and watch out for those cold gusts.”

The brave men of New York have taken to wearing meggings in their droves, but we suspect they may possibly be those arty types, who visit museums and galleries, even when there are no specific exhibitions on. If your guy is a potential meggings wearer, check out online stores such as Uniqlo, who have just started selling meggings on their British website. And if their success in New York is anything to go by, we may be seeing men wearing meggings in High Streets in the UK very soon.

It is thought that they will be a natural progression from the trend of skinny jeans on men, also made successful by the same celebrities such as Russell Brand and Lenny Kravitz. It is one thing to see your favourite male celeb wearing a pair of skinnies however, than to view them on your slightly overweight boyfriend. However, if you have the figure for it, why not, as 34-year-old English entrepreneur Mark Dorosz, who lives on the Upper East Side in Manhattan explains: “Male tights are so much more comfortable than skinny jeans,” he added. “I’ve always had good legs and it’s nice to show them off all year round. There are so many people wearing exotic clothes in New York that nobody cares about a man wearing leggings if it works for him. Perhaps people will be laughing around this in 12 months’ time but for now they come up to me and say, ‘You look awesome.’”

Picture by Dan Callister Images

Other New Yorkers, however, are not so forgiving of the meggings, and think it is more of a European craze, as Gabriel Cru, 35, from the Bronx, said: “Men in tights? Get out of here. We don’t do men in tights in New York. That’s European!”

It really is all down to the man’s physique, and is a difficult look to pull off. As New York-based British fashion designer Lucy Sykes warned: “The only guy I’ve seen that looks good in a legging is my friend Neil who works with me at Rent the Runway,” she added. “But he’s young, dark and handsome and used to perform ballet at Lincoln Centre. Frankly any other man I have seen [in tights] looks a bit of a wally.”

So basically, if your day job is a dancing in a ballet, you’ll look fine in a pair of meggings, anything else, forget it!